Kali BillsCal Poly announced its football schedule for the 2007 season Wednesday with little surprises.
As expected, the Mustangs will play five home games and six away, one Division I-A team and one Division II school.
Cal Poly is the third of the five Great West Football Conference schools to officially announce its 2007 schedule along with UC Davis and South Dakota State. As reported in the Mustang Daily on Jan. 30, Cal Poly will not play Sacramento State for the first time since 1982.
It is a good thing that the Mustangs open at a perennial I-AA power (Texas State) and close the regular season with two home games (North Dakota State and Iona), Cal Poly senior-to-be outside linebacker Jason Relyea said Wednesday. Last year, Cal Poly opened against a Division II school (Fort Lewis) and played three of its last four games on the road.
North Dakota State ended Cal Poly’s playoff hopes with a 51-14 rout in Fargo, N.D., last season. The Bison are the Mustangs’ lone Great West opponent at home in 2007.
“That’s when you have to be playing your best football,” Relyea said of the final two games. “Hopefully it’s coming down to the conference championship. (The Bison) are going to be a good opponent. I’m very eager because that’s one of the things every day that comes up in the weight room and at practice – 51-14. Essentially, that’s how we ended our season.”
Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening, but said in a statement released by the school: “It’s a long, hard process to get to this point and I’m glad it’s finally over. You have no idea how challenging it is to get a schedule put together these days. A lot of teams are opting not to play us. Part of it is we’ve become so competitive, and also there are more opportunities to play Division I-A schools and make some money.”
Division I-AA teams are allowed to play only 11 regular-season games, and Sacramento State typically plays cross-town, nonconference rival UC Davis. For its other two nonconference contests, Sacramento State chose to play at I-A schools Fresno State and New Mexico.
“We ran out of dates,” Sacramento State athletics director Terry Wanless told the Mustang Daily on Jan. 29. “It had nothing to do with Cal Poly. I have great respect for Cal Poly.”
Partly because of the Sacramento State absence, Cal Poly’s schedule features some new opponents. The Mustangs will play Division II Western Oregon (6-4 last year) and I-AA Iona (3-7 last year) for the first time.
Cal Poly will open its quest for a fifth straight winning season Sept. 1 at Texas State in a growing rivalry that was given an extra twist Feb. 21 when Texas State announced it had hired Terrol Dillon as its linebackers coach. Dillon was Cal Poly’s linebackers coach in 2006. Additionally, the Bobcats knocked the Mustangs out of the I-AA playoffs in a 14-7 quarterfinal game in San Marcos, Texas, in 2005.
Relyea said he is already looking forward to the opener.
“For me, it’s a few things, as it will be for others,” he said. “Coach Dillon is now over there. He was a really good friend of mine. We talked about when we played them, there’s going to be a lot of emotions. It will bring new challenges with coach Dillon having coached our defense. We’ll have to play our best football come Week 1.”
Cal Poly then heads to Moscow, Idaho, to play I-A Idaho on Sept. 8. The Vandals were 4-8 overall and 3-5 in the Western Athletic Conference last season.
The Mustangs’ first three home games are against Weber State (Sept. 15), Western Oregon (Sept. 22) and Northern Colorado in the Hall of Fame Game on Sept. 29.
Following a bye in Week 6, Cal Poly opens Great West play at rival UC Davis in the Horseshoe Classic on Oct. 13. The Mustangs also have Great West dates at South Dakota State (Oct. 20), at Southern Utah (Nov. 3) and against visiting North Dakota State (Nov. 10).
Two of Cal Poly’s final four regular-season games are out of conference – at Idaho State (Oct. 27) and against visiting Iona (Nov. 17).
Relyea said it helps having no road games from Sept. 9 to Oct. 12 because school traditionally starts during the final week of September.
“It makes it a smoother transition and allows us to play better,” Relyea said. “It means we have a month at home where we can just work on so much more. Just having a good Friday practice in our own facility, it’s always easy to play when we don’t travel.”
The Mustangs began their spring practice season Feb. 21.
“I think we’re looking good,” Relyea said. “We’ve got a lot of competition out there for spots. It makes everybody play hard each practice, instead of having a lot of seniors locked up and having things secured and then the No. 2s not getting a lot of work.”
Spring practice concludes with the tentatively-scheduled Spring Game on March 11.
Relyea is already setting goals for next season.
“We’ve got to win it all,” he said. “I’m not going out without a championship. Everybody has that as a common goal.”